Under the law corporations are people, right?  That ruling, by the way, wasn’t the outcome of Citizen’s United.  It appeared in the 1886  case of Santa Clara vs. Southern Pacific Railroad Co. While the Supreme Court didn’t settle the railroad case on the question of personhoo

A column by Leonard Pitts appeared in the Miami Herald recently entitled,  “The End of Objective Truth.”  (The Week, September 9, 2016, pg. 12.)   His point was that falsehoods repeated over and over again gain an emotional credence that has “wrecked the idea of objective, k

Sometimes I feel like a bat, viewing the world while hanging upside down.  Let’s begin with the small absurdities: that some universities are allowing African-American students to re-segregate, allowing them to choose all black housing so they can avoid, “insensitive remarks.”�

Sometime ago, I wrote about a few local, female politicians who picketed an “old boys’ club” in my community —  a place of privilege where political agendas were set without a public process.  To put an end to this exclusivity, the women decided to shine a light on what

In politics, people want access to their elected officials but when they get it, others are tempted to wonder what goes on behind closed doors.  As a former public servant, I am aware  of the opportunity for distrust.  When I served, everyone wanted to see me, it seemed.  If they

“The universe is not only queerer than we suppose but queerer than we can suppose.”  So observed J. B. S. Haldane, a scientist and popularizer of science who died in the 1960s.  Thinking about existence, I can imagine no statement more accurate than Haldane’s.  Not only are h

In October 1965, Lyndon Johnson, 36th President of the United States, held a press conference on the White House lawn to assure the public he was fully recovered from gall bladder surgery. I was glad to hear it, but watched, stupefied, as he lifted his shirt to show his scar to the me

Hillary Clinton has been charged by her critics with so many crimes, so many bad decisions and so many shady associations that after 40 years of intense investigations by hostile prosecutors, it’s a wonder she’s allowed to wear pants suits instead of sackcloth and ashes.  The lat

When I graduated from Reed, I applied for a job in San Francisco.  I needed work that paid well because I was saving for my  boat passage to England to join my  fiancé.  My first interview was with a company, the name of which I have forgotten, but I remember the interview was br

If you believe Donald Trump intended to incite someone from the NRA to shoot Hillary Clinton in his off the cuff comment recently, I have a bridge in Brooklyn I’d like to sell you.  Whatever the man’s flaws, he isn’t stupid enough to publicly engage in a conspiracy to commit mu